-------
North Pepin Independent; North Pepin, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 23, 1857

SAD CASUALTY.
We are pained to learn that on Tuesday afternoon of the 12th inst. J. McMaster, Editor of the Waumadee Herald, and his brother Thomas A. McMaster, book keeper in the store of T. B. Wilson & Co. were drowned in the Mississippi near Reed's Landing. The circumstances of this melancholy accident, as near as we can learn, are as follows:
A party of four, M. Wilson Heller, clerk in Mr. Wilson's store, and Thomas McHuey, a relative of the McMasters, together with the unfortunate young men above named, were enjoying a sail in a pleasure boat on the river. The wind being high, and they not very well experienced in "tacking" the boat capsized. Mr. Heller and McHuey, were saved by holding onto the boat.
The Wabashaw Journal speaks of the deceased as follows:
"This was a peculiarly sad misfortune for this family. Joseph McMaster had just assumed the editorial responsibilities of the new paper, and the first number had just been published under the most encouraging circumstances. In it he spoke exultingly of the future prospects for himself and his paper, but alas! how treacherous are the elements, and how suddenly may life be cut short. Before his first paper with its clear face, its anxious hopes, and its high aspirations for future good reached many of its readers, the editor was numbered among the dead. He leaves a wife and two children to mourn his loss.
Thomas A. McMaster has been engaged as a book keeper for the firm of T. B. Wilson & Co., and was regarded as a most estimable gentleman in his intercourse with his fellow citizens.
---------

Daily National Intelligencer, Pittsburgh, PA, May 25, 1857

Two Brothers drowned -- The Pittsburg papers learned from private letters received in that city that Joseph and Thomas McMasters, two brothers, were drowned a short time since at Landing, near Lake Pepin, Minnesota, by the upsetting of a sail-boat. They were both printers, and were highly esteemed in Pittsburg. They had established a new paper, the "Wimodee Herald," and bid fair to have become good and useful citizens of the flourishing Territory.

--------
St. Paul Daily Pioneer, May 17, 1857, page 3

TWO MEN DROWNED AT REED'S LANDING --On Thursday afternoon, as Joseph McMaster, and his brother, editors and proprietors of the Waumadee Herald, at Reed's Landing, were indulging in a boat ride opposite that town, a high wind suddenly struck the boat, capsizing it, and throwing them into the river, and being unable to swim, they were both drowned. Mr. Joseph McMaster was a practical printer, having worked for a number of years in Pittsburgh; and had just issued the first number of the new paper at Reed's Landing. His brother has been in the Territory a year or two, and resided at that point, but had been on a visit east, and just returned before the sad affair. There were both gentlemen of irreproachable character, and indomitable energy, and have been thus suddenly cut off in the commencement of a career of usefulness and honor.
-------


Dec 1933 issue of MN History Magazine, pages 86-89
N O T E S AND D O C U M E N TS
THE FRONTIER PRESS: TWO COMMUNICATIONS
THE WABASHA COUNTY HERALD-STANDARD
There Is a previous chapter that affects the present Wabasha
County Herald-Standard, mentioned in the very interesting
article on the " Frontier Press of Minnesota " in the
December, 1933, issue of MINNESOTA HISTORY, that may
be of interest — so here is the story.
When William C. McMaster, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
arrived at Read's Landing on the steamer "Cremona"
on April 19, 1857, with his family, It included two
sons, Joseph and William J., aged respectively twenty-nine
and nineteen. Among their effects was a complete printing
outfit — newspaper and job — brought for the express purpose
of establishing a newspaper at Read's Landing. Joseph
was a full-fledged printer, having learned the trade in
Ireland, and William was well versed in the craft for his
years.
The outfit was set up at once and the initial number of a
paper which bore the name Waumadee Herald was issued
under the date of May 9, 1857. We have been told that
this particular name was used, chiefly, to assist certain
people in their effort to have the name of Read's Landing
changed to Waumadee. The paper, however, was not
printed until the morning of Tuesday, May 12, 1857.
That afternoon Joseph McMaster and a younger brother,
Thomas, accompanied by two other men, went out on the
Mississippi in a sailboat which capsized and the two brothers were drowned.
This put an end to the paper, so far as the McMasters
were concerned, as William lacked the age and experience
to carry on. Some two months or so later, N. E. Stevens
came In from some point in Wisconsin and purchased the
outfit. Just when this happened Is not known, but in February, 1879, the writer saw In a reading room at Read's
Landing a copy of volume 1, number 2, of the Waumadee
Herald which bore the date of August 15, 1857, and reported
the fact In the local news of the place published in
Lake City, by William J. McMaster. How long Stevens
continued the paper as the Waumadee Herald is unknown.
D. S. B. Johnston in his "Minnesota Journalism In the
Territorial Period," in Minnesota Historical Collections,
vol. 10, gives an account of the Waumadee Herald and
the Wabashaw County Herald. He erroneously says that
Thomas McMaster was one of the proprietors of the Waumadee
Herald. Thomas was neither a newspaper man nor
a printer. Johnston figures backward from the earliest
known copy of the Wabashaw County Herald in existence—
volume 2, number 22, dated January 29, 1859, now In the
files of the Minnesota Historical Society — and on the supposition that the paper was issued each week, finds that the date of volume 1, number 1, of the Herald should have been September 5, 1857.
This Is a reasonable conclusion based on continuous
weekly publication and would suggest that Stevens may
have published the Waumadee Herald on August 22 and
29 before changing the name to Wabashaw County Herald.
There is no evidence, however, as to the number of issues
brought out between August 15, 1857, and January
29, 1859. Nor is there any evidence that when Stevens
changed the name of the paper, volume 1, number 1, was
applied to that issue. In fact we consider that it was more
than a fifty-fifty proposition that he continued the Waumadee Herald volume and numbers when he changed the
name, since there was no change in ownership or policy.
In any event the present Wabasha County Herald-Standard
had its beginning in the Waumadee Herald dated May 9,
1857. Stevens told the writer a number of years ago that
he changed the name to give the paper a better standing In
the county and that he moved the paper from Read's Landing
to Wabasha in 1860. For some time before that, the
date line of the paper carried the names of both places.
There are two copies of the original McMaster paper
In existence. One, which was In the pocket of Thomas,
whose body was not recovered for nearly six weeks after the
drowning, is In the possession of the writer, and the other is owned by the Minnesota Historical Society.
William J. McMaster continued in the newspaper business
and was employed on various newspapers, including
Lute A. Taylor's Prescott [Wisconsin] Journal and the St.
Paul Press, until 1865, when with T. H. Perkins he purchased
the Lake City Times and changed the name to Lake
City Leader. McMaster was editor of the Leader most
of the time until March, 1880, when failing health compelled
his retirement. He died on June 10, 1880.
You may wonder how the writer happens to know so
much of this ancient history. He came to Read's Landing
In 1867 and ten years later it was his great good fortune
to secure for a companion for over fifty years Clara M.,
the youngest member of the William C. McMaster family.
One thing that always stood out in her childhood recollections was her first view of Read's Landing from the shoulder of her father on the deck of the " Cremona." Lake
Pepin was late In opening in 1857 and there was a long line
of steamers tied up at the little town waiting for the ice to go out of Lake Pepin so that they might get through to St. Paul. Some accounts say there were thirty-three boats,
others say twenty-seven, but there were plenty to leave a
lasting impression on the child's mind. Her most cherished
possessions were the copy of the Waumadee Herald found
on the body of her brother and a picture of the members of
the first Minnesota editorial convention in 1867, in the organization of which another brother took a prominent part.
FRED A. BILL
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA

-------

wife: Mary Ann Kelker
Sons: William McMaster 1854-?
Thomas Weaver McMaster 1855-1935

Mary Ann Kelker McMaster returned to Pittsburgh, PA following her husbands death. She remarried in 1870 to Henry Young Jr, of East Deer Township, where he was a farmer and shoemaker. Mary Ann and Henry had one child, a son, Ralph B. Young.